48 Hours

The Bold And The Beautiful

If you thought you knew what polygamy in America looks like-child brides, prairie dresses and upswept hair-think again: twin sisters Vicki and Valerie, who, along with another woman, consider themselves all married to the same man, manage to blend in to society.

"All together, we have 22 children. And we all live in one big house," Valerie, who is the third wife, tells correspondent Troy Roberts.

Their home is not a house in a remote compound, but on a middle class suburban street just outside Salt Lake. Valerie estimates that there are "thousands" of families like hers out there - thousands of families you would never know were breaking the law just by looking at them.

These women have jobs, wear makeup, and send their children to the local public school. Their children play video games, and their teenage son dyes his hair.

"We [are] kind of willing to, you know, not think that the outside world is such a bad place. My family doesn't live in a kind of closed society," says Vicki, who is the second wife.

It is estimated that there are close to 40,000 polygamists in the United States, and only a quarter of them belong to the FLDS. Many more live much like Vicki and Valerie.

Suzy and Christine also live in plural marriages. "The basic thing that we have different from FLDS is that we chose who we marry. We choose when we marry. We don't believe in under-aged marriages," Christine says.

They think under-aged is under 18, and Val says, "For my own children, they may be a little bit older."

"Absolutely I'd love the girls to go to college first. Get a degree. You know, work on their own for a while. Go live in an apartment. Travel the world," Christine adds.

The practice of polygamy is a deeply held spiritual belief for them. "It's just the way that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in the Bible," Christine says.

But they say they'd be okay if their children decided to forego it. "It not as if, you know, everyone is forcing their kids even into this lifestyle. They are allowed freedom wherever their life takes them," Valerie says.